Tuesday, March 9, 2010

March 9, 2008 Redux

As if I needed to talk any more about the strange winter we have experienced here this year...

The picture on the far left was taken on March 9, 2008. The picture on the right side was taken on March 9, 2010 from roughly the same spot. So, think of them as a Backyard Ice "Before-and-After," or perhaps "Then-and-Now." (Click on the picture to see a larger version.) And although a picture is worth a thousand words, what follows are a number of specific words that I’ve selected to go along with these particular pictures.

The pictures show the “entrance” to my backyard rink. In 2008, I shoveled that corridor by hand through several feet of snow to get to the rink; the drift at the front of the picture is probably close to 10 feet high. With winter boots (and a toque) on, the top of my head is more than 6 feet above the ground, and I could walk under the overhanging part of the drift that juts out towards the left without ducking.

The winter of 2007-2008 was the last winter that I shoveled that much snow by hand, in large part because of the storm that hit on this particular day. So, mainly influenced by the amount of snow we received in 2007-2008, I bought a snowblower in November 2008. It got plenty of use in its first winter – on both the driveway and the backyard rink, of course. Now, the few times that I’ve used my snowblower this winter served only to (a) make sure that it still worked, and (b) remind myself that I still have one.

It’s hard to believe that the scenes in these photos are separated by exactly two years. I can’t imagine any more extreme differences in the overall weather conditions – existing snow amounts, average temperatures – occurring 730 days apart.

What will this view look like next year at this time? I'll be sure to let you know!